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5 LIBRARY OF CONGRKSS. 5 






5^0 



I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



O R A. TI o ]sr 



DELIVERED BEEOKB THE 



MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES 



AND 



CITIZENS OF PROVIDENCE, 



ON THE EIGHTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF 



AMEEICAN INDEPENDENCE, 



JULY 4, I860. 



V 



BY THOMAS M. CLARK, D. D. 



PROVIDENCE: 

KNOWLES, ANTHONY & CO., CITY PRINTERS. 
1860. 



mo 



CITY OF PROVIDENCE. 
By THE City Council, July 9, 1860 — 

Resolved, That the Committee appointed to make arrangements for the 
Municipal Celebration of the anniversary of American Independence, be 
and they are hereby authorized to request of the Right Rev. Thomas M. 
Clark, a copy of the Oration by him deli-vered on the fourth instant, and 
to cause seven hundred and fifty copies of the same to be published in 
pamphlet form for the use of the City Council. 
A true copy : attest, 

SAMUEL W. BROWN, 

City Clerk. 



ORATION. 



Fellow Citizens : 

We have assembled to celebrate the birth-day of the 
nation. It will be a most unfortunate token when this 
anniversary shall be degraded to the purposes of politi- 
cal strife, or prostituted to the orgies of bacchanalian 
revelry. Let it forever be regarded as a great national 
Sabbath of joy and thanksgiving ; let all servile labor 
be suspended, all narrow partizanship forgotten, all 
distinctions of rank laid aside, and the people every- 
where come together, as children of the same household, 
to recognize their common brotherhood, and join heart 
and voice in one lofty anthem of grateful praise. Let 
the banner of freedom wave from every hill top, every 
bell ring out its merry chimes, garlands of flowers be 
hung on all our public monuments ; let drum and trum- 
pet fill the air with music, while cannons thunder from 
Maine to California, and the whole land smokes with the 
incense of joy. Let no man feel himself exempt from 



6 



the solemn obligation to hallow this sacred festival ; 
teach your children to-day the lesson of liberty ; pray 
for the oppressed, here and everywhere; let in light 
upon the dark dwellings of the poor; cast out the demons 
of bigotry, to roam in desert places ; and open wide the 
door for the bright angel of peace and love to enter in 
and take up his abode with men. 

There are memories connected with this occasion, 
which impart to the day a peculiar sanctity. They are 
very familiar, almost common-place — those old stories of 
the Revolution, hardships of winter campaigns ; forced 
marches under the sweltering heat of a summer's sun ; 
hunger and thirst and sickness of an Unpaid and ill- 
provided army; sacrifice of temporal goods; long sepa- 
rations of parents and children, husbands and wives; 
groans and agonies of wounded men in rattling tumbrils ; 
pale faces on the battle-field, turned up to the cold moon- 
light, that will never smile upon the little ones at home 
again — familiar, common-place, only fit for a Fourth of 
July oration, we may call all this, as we complacently 
gather in our rich harvests from the soil which our 
fathers' blood made fruitful. No doubt that a mythical 
halo has gathered about our revolutionary heroes, and 
we begin to forget their frailties ; as far off mountains 
are glorified by the distance, and all their roughness and 
barrenness are softened into a cloud of violet : let it be 
so, — let no man disturb the grand ideal which the world 



by common consent has agreed to reverence. I never 
saw, in our civic processions, the carriage which conveyed 
the old soldiers of the devolution, without a feeling of 
respectful awe. They were, perhaps, rather ordinary 
men in their common relations, not over nice either in 
dress or speech, and perhaps nothing but their pension 
kept some of them out of a poor house ; but I venerated 
them still, as mossy, mouldered monuments of one of 
the sublimest movements ever known on earth. I do 
not know but they have all passed away now ; for years 
the newspapers have periodically announced the last 
surviving soldier of the Revolution gone, and he may 
have gone at last. If so, hallowed be the turf that covers 
his mortal tenement, and may God have received his 
soul into the mansions of everlasting rest. 

There are circumstances connected with our coming 
into being as a nation, which indicate for us a peculiar 
destiny. It was not until the world was ripe, that we 
were born. "We were spared the long infancy of barba- 
rism, through which older nations struggled to their matu- 
rity. The close of the eighteenth century was the most 
favorable period for establishing a republic upon broad 
and liberal principles, ever known in history. The true 
elements of government, the inherent rights of man, the 
laws of political economy, were better understood than 
ever before. Physical phenomena had just escaped from 
the nebulous regions of alchemy and astrology, and were 



passing into the domain of science, thus preparing the 
way for the wonderful inventions and discoveries which 
have been crowded into the last half century. A 
rational, inductive philosophy had recently superceded 
the metaphysics of dreaming schoolmen ; the claims of 
universal education were, for the first time in the history 
of the world, recognized and reduced to practice ; hooks 
were growing cheaper, newspapers began to be circu- 
lated, post offices established, public conveyances to run ; 
the means and appliances of physical comfort more gen- 
erally distributed, the food, and clothing, and furniture, 
and dwelling-houses of the people at large were better 
than they had been ; and above all, a clearer view of 
Christianity, in its practical application to the real neces- 
sities of men, now prevailed. We had the benefit of 
nearly six thousand years experience to guide us in 
framing our institutions ; all the successes and all the 
failures of all the ancient monarchies and republics to 
help us ; is it a weak conceit to infer that our Constitu- 
tion was wiser than all ? 

Consider, also, the advantages of our geographical 
position. Separated by two oceans from the encroach- 
ments of the old world, the contaminating influence of 
its effete institutions, and the debilitating effects of its 
over-ripe luxury ; with such a reach of terrritory, that 
while the ice still fetters the streams and snow enshrouds 
the fields in one extreme, roses bloom and the magnolia 



9 



gives out its rich perfume in the other ; with such va- 
riety of soil and climate that, if it were necessary, we 
could raise all we need, without recourse to any foreign 
supply, with no political power north . or south of our 
territory, that we have cause to fear, — the only question 
being how soon and how rapidly is it expedient for us 
to take measures for the annexation of our neighbors ; 
are we foolish in supposing that Providence intends that 
we should accomplish some great destiny, and solve some 
mighty problem in government and religion? And 
what sort of men were they who first established them- 
selves on these American shores ? They were not angels, 
as the aborigines, whom they so speedily exterminated, 
can testify ; they held, as a class, no such notions of 
religious liberty as poetry assigns to them ; but still 
they were real men, strong men, good men, — perhaps 
not fully rounded and symmetrical in their characters, — 
not exactly the type of men that we would wish to see 
perpetuated and made universal, — men rather to be ven- 
erated than loved, never to be ashamed of; just the 
men to hew down forests, and lay broad and deep the 
foundations of a nation. 

One sad thought will intrude itself here, and that is 
the heavy loss which their success entailed upon the 
original inhabitants of our soil. There were elements 
of nobleness in those Indian races, which the European 
settler ought to have recognized and respected ; there 
2 



10 



were rights of possession inherent in those tribes, which 
should have been more sacredly regarded ; we owe a 
debt to the people whom we have dispossessed, which we 
have been too reluctant to pay, and every year it is 
accumulating against us. Can nothing be done to save 
the little remnant that remain ? Must they be left to 
the tender mercies of border-ruJBfians, who combine in 
their persons the worst features of barbarism with the 
meanest and lowest vices of a pseudo-civilization? Must 
the nation go on, paying the cost of wars which are 
waged for no other purpose but to get possession of the 
Indian territory by exterminating its owner? The 
wrongs of this people, past wrongs and present wrongs, 
cry to Heaven against us. There are laws for their 
protection, but they are not executed. Would that 
public sentiment might be roused from its apathy, and 
that in season ; or else the last vestige of the red man's 
wigwam will be swept from the face of the earth. 

They were sturdy and stout-hearted Saxons, who first 
planted here the institutions of free civilization. 

And still it was most fortunate for us that they were 
not allowed, in the heginning, to establish on this continent 
independent States, but were obliged to remain for a 
season as colonies, subject to the sovereignty of a for- 
eign power. Under any other condition of things than 
that which actually existed, how would it ever have 
been possible to form such a great federal Republic as is 



11 



now constituted by these United States ? If tlie colonies 
had been independent, Congregationalism would have 
been recognized as the established religion throughout 
New England ; Presbyterianism in New York ; Episco- 
pacy in Virginia ; and most probably the Eoman Catho- 
lic faith in Maryland. This, of itself, would have been 
a perpetual bar to confederated union. And what pro- 
bability is there that in the beginning, these separate 
States would have formed themselves into republics at 
all ? One little colony, — the least of all, — ^by the very 
terms of its settlement, would have stood alone, free 
from all ecclesiastical constraint, and acknowledging the 
unrestricted right of the people to govern themselves ; 
but with Massachusetts on one side, and Connecticut on 
the other, how long would Rhode Island and the Provi- 
dence Plantations have retained an independent exist- 
ence? Nothing but the protection of the King and 
Council in England saved our little territory from being 
crushed to death between those two more powerful color 
nies. One debt of gratitude the State of Rhode Island 
owes to the mother country as we still delight to call 
her, notwithstanding the wrongs which have sundered 
us from all allegiance to her crown, and it is only just 
that we should acknowledge it to-day. And while we 
protest against the encroachments of George the Third 
and his ministers, we would not forget that even then, 
there were many noble hearts in England that throbbed 



12 



in unison with ours, and manly voices that were lifted 
up in our behalf in her Parliament ; and we rejoice that 
for so many prosperous years, the stars and stripes of 
America have floated in amity with the red cross of 
Britain over the same broad decks ; and that while the 
child has never ceased to love the mother, the mother 
has learned at last to honor the child. May it be so 
forever. It would be as ungenerous for us to harbor 
ill thoughts of the old country from which we sprung, 
as it would be for her to be jealous of the prosperity of 
her offspring, in which she so richly shares : let our only 
rivalry hereafter be in seeing which can do the most to 
civilize and Christianize the world. 

And now we come to the question, what are the 
problems which, in the Providence of God, it is devolved 
upon us to solve ? 

First, whether it is possible for a people to govern 
themselves, under no other restraints but those constitu- 
tional restrictions, Tvhich they have deliberately imposed 
upon themselves ? In the ages that are past, every ex- 
periment of this sort has failed ; the ancient republics, 
in the very height of their splendor, when art and science 
and literature had culminated, went down, like a ship 
under full sail, foundering in the sea. It is predicted 
that such will be our fate ; that this constitutional gov- 
ernment, of which we are so proud, must result event- 
ually either in anarchy, or a military despotism. We 



13 



are told that it is only the sparseness of our population, 
and the ease with which people at large are thus enabled 
to secure a comfortable living, which now saves our in- 
stitutions from destruction; that it is folly to expect 
there will be found intelligence and virtue enough in 
the mass of any large population to render them compe- 
tent to the solemn duties which a republican govern- 
ment demands of them ; and that the facilities which 
this general suffrage gives to the ambitious demagogue 
must sooner or later prove fatal. Even the wiser and 
better men among our politicians, we are further told, 
must in a measure demean themselves, if they would 
win the popular heart ; you cannot carry an election, 
without resorting to some unworthy device, raising some 
ridiculous cry, getting up some vulgar nickname for the 
candidates, lying in one way here and in the opposite 
way there ; you do not dare to leave any great question 
to be decided by the popular voice simply according to 
its merits, because you know that the ignorant multi- 
tude, who hold the balance of power, are not competent 
to form an opinion upon the real point at issue. 

It is sad to hear all this ; it is sadder to fear that it 
may have some foundation in truth. For if the experi- 
ment of a republic fail here, — that beautiful ideal of 
government, in treating of which, even philosophy has 
glowed with poetic fire ; — if it fail here, with all the ad- 
vantages which our antecedents give us ; if it fail here. 



14 



when we have the opportunity to test the problem more 
fairly than was ever possible before in any age or land ; 
when, where, and how can it ever again be hopefully re- 
newed ? And must we say to the oppressed and down- 
trodden nations abroad, who are looking to our example 
and our success for encouragement, — waiting anxiously 
for the time when they may point to these United States 
in proof that human beings as a class are competent to 
' govern themselves by such rulers as they see fit to elect, 
and by such laws as their chosen legislators may enact, 
without the burden and annoyance of a great standing 
army, without the impoverishing cost of a jewelled court 
and throne j must we say to those noble spirits who 
to-day are struggling so earnestly and manfully, in 
Southern Europe, to extricate themselves from the polit- 
ical and priestly vampires who have sucked their blood 
so long, who are working so hard that they may be able 
to say to the husbandman: Now go on, sow and reap 
your fields without fear, the harvest shall be your own ; 
to the artisan : Hammer and stitch, and ply your loom 
with a merry heart, the bread which you earn shall go 
to feed your children, and no foreign mercenary ; to the 
thinker, the writer and the speaker: Give forth your own 
thoughts, utter your real belief, give to the world boldly 
that with which the Almighty has inspired you, there 
are no more dungeons gaping for you ; must we cry 
mournfully across the Atlantic to those great patriots : 



15 



Your case is hopeless, if you succeed in your present 
effort, the people whom you hope to benefit, will only be 
worse off in the end ; sheath your sword, furl your ban- 
ners, let the trumpet peaF of freedom that you have 
sounded fall into a coronach of wailing ; flee for your 
lives, and let the yoke be welded once more about the 
necks of the people ; they are only fit to be driven ; only 
fit to work in the harness ; leave them to the mercy of 
the coronetted and anointed drovers, who, by divine right, 
are appointed to care for them. Must we say this? 
God forbid ! 

Let us, however, try to look fairly at our present 
position, and see what are the unfavorable as well as 
the favorable portents in our political horizon. There 
always have been two great parties dividing the nation, 
and it is well that it should be so ; for in a republic, 
any body of men in power will need the watchful check 
of an opposition out of power. But it is a very unpro- 
pitious circumstance that this party division has of late 
years become sectional, and is made to hinge almost ex- 
clusively upon the most delicate and difficult question 
that has ever agitated our councils. The old party 
issues seem to be utterly forgotten ; one topic has be- 
come the rallying cry in our elections, and the most 
prominent subject of Congressional debate ; and that a 
subject which, twenty-five years ago, was rarely alluded 
to by our legislators, and was never heard of at the 



16 



polls. It appears at present to be the only matter about 
which there is any very prominent national difference 
of opinion ; and if it were not for this vexed question of 
slavery, it is difficult to conceive upon what ground our 
leading political parties could divide. 

Within the memory of many whom I address to-day, 
no man would have dared to rise in his place in the 
Capital at Washington, and utter menaces against the 
sacred Union of our States. Have you forgotten what 
a shudder ran through society, when it was first an- 
nounced that certain persons had begun " to calculate 
the value of the Union?" We had been trained to 
think that its value could not be calculated, that it was 
not a matter for calculation, that it was too sacred, hal- 
lowed by too many precious memories, knit together by 
too many tender ties, to allow any calculation of its worth; 
our fathers had fought together, prayed together, and 
died together in the Revolution ; there was no North 
and South then ; the bones of Rhode Island's choicest 
son lie buried to-day under the turf of Georgia ; the 
statue of Washington stands serene in the capital of 
Massachusetts as well as in the capital of Virginia — 
North and South Virginia the colonies were once lov- 
ingly called — and shall we talk of disunion ? Shall we 
rend the flag under which our illustrious ancestors 
marched forth to victory ? It makes us hopeful to re- 
member that we have already survived so many event- 



17 



ful crises, as they were deemed at the time. Nobody 
now seems to care for those old matters which once filled 
the political horizon with storm-clouds ; they can be 
talked over almost anywhere, without stirring any ill 
blood ; even the Hartford Convention disturbs no one's 
dreams, and it has become a sort of fashion to worship 
Gen. Jackson, who broke up the Bank and removed the 
Deposits, and made South Carolina behave herself; good 
people, who once voted against him, and worked against 
him, prayed against him, are not unfrequently heard to 
express a wish that we had him back again, to adminis- 
ter a little wholesome correction in high quarters. But 
we are now dealing with a question more vital, more 
difficult to adjust than bank or tariff; it is a question of 
morals as well as economy, and it is the complication of 
these two elements, which makes it so delicate and so 
dangerous. I do not intend to inflict upon you a trea- 
tise on the subject of slavery. I do not think it is a 
proper time for it ; neither would I abuse the occasion 
by saying a word that will be justly offensive to either 
of the political parties that divide us ; but this opinion 
you must allow me to express — that in this present crisis, 
which is a very serious one, I consider it as a cause of 
hearty congratulation that, inasmuch as we must have 
two or more great parties in the North, we are also like- 
ly to have two parties at the South. Whoever succeeds 
in the approaching Presidential campaign, whether it be 
3 



18 



the sturdy, honest, strong-hearted Lincoln, or the ener- 
getic, powerful, strong-minded Douglas, or the accom- 
plished, experienced, statesman-like Bell, or the cour- 
teous, captivating and eloquent Breckinridge, the next 
administration will be more judiciously and wisely con- 
ducted, and the integrity of the Union more secure, be- 
cause of this fact. It is well that the political sphere 
should be divided by lines of longitude as well as of 
latitude ; for then we can take our bearings more accu- 
rately. There ought to be wisdom enough in the nation 
to settle impending differences upon a just and equita- 
ble basis ; and there is wisdom enough, if we could only 
bring it practically to bear upon our difficulties. The 
heart of the people beats loyal yet, and our Constitution 
is broad enough for us all to stand upon. 

One of the most encouraging features in our popular 
elections is the fact that just as soon as the balloting has 
determined the final result, there is so general and peace- 
ful an acquiescence in that result. No one ever thinks 
of keeping up the excitement after the election is over. 
A few months since, this State was stirred, as it rarely 
has been before ; men toiled and declaimed, and it is 
rumored that some were even generous enough to con- 
tribute somewhat of their substance to carry the election 
as they desired. There were anxious faces in the street, 
earnest consultations in private rooms, tumultuous 
demonstrations in public halls, flags swinging at every 



19 



corner, bands of music playing, torch-light processions, 
pictorial appeals of somewhat questionable merit, fearful 
expenditures of printer's ink, laboring men were greeted 
by their employers with unwonted cordiality, until, on 
election day, the ferment reached its height, and then 
you could hear the surging of the waves from Cumber- 
land to Pawcatuck ; the whole State was moved to its 
lowest depths ; when, behold, in twenty-four short hours 
all was as calm and placid as a lake in the still moon- 
light, and ever since, we have lain quiet in our beds at 
night, fearing nothing from our young and enterprising 
Governor, even though we had not the grace to vote for 
him. So it will be in the coming campaign. We shall 
hear all sorts of evil threatened on every side, we shall 
be told that the South will secede, our manufactories be 
denied their cotton, trade in general be interrupted, 
if one party carry the day ; we shall be told that the 
slave-roll will be called at Bunker Hill, and our Territo- 
ries cursed with perpetual servitude if the other party 
win ; but the South will not secede, neither will the 
good people who reside on Bunker Hill be troubled, 
however the election may go. We shall all accede to 
the result, with as good grace as we can ; and the de- 
feated party say, with as much cheerfulness as could be 
expected : ^* Four years hence we will do better." It has 
always been so heretofore, and I do not see why it 
should not be so again. 



20 



There is, however, one difficulty which strikes deeper 
into the foundations of our political fabric, and is more 
likely to shake the whole superstructure than any cas- 
ual tempest of party strife. Our country is a refuge for 
the poor, the oppressed, the discontented, as well as the 
enterprising inhabitants of the old world, and every year 
they land upon these shores in countless multitudes. 
New York is said to be the most cosmopolitan city on 
the face of the earth ; there is a greater variety of lan- 
guages spoken there, and a larger proportion of foreign- 
ers, in comparison with the native population. And 
who would wish this current of emigration to be stayed ? 
We want all these men ; there is room enough for them 
all ; they have as good a right to come here as our 
fathers originally had, and the progress of our great im- 
provements would be fatally checked without their aid ; 
we welcome them all, English, Irish, Scotch, German, 
French, Italian and Japanese. Come and send for your 
fathers and mothers and brethren after you get here, as 
Joseph did when he went down into Egypt. Come and 
beat us in trade, if you can honestly ; come and help us 
to develope the resources of our vast country ; come and 
worship God as you were accustomed to worship Him 
at home. Come and bring your priests with you ; we 
will give them a hearty grip of welcome, too, if they will 
suffer it ; but is it too much for us to ask, if you intend 
to appear at the ballot-box, more especially if you in- 



21 



tend to hold office and regulate our political institutions, 
is it too mucli to ask that you will take a little time to 
study those institutions and inform yourselves as to the 
nature of our government ? Universal suffrage is safe 
only as it rests upon the basis of universal education. 
If the great questions of polity which pertain to govern- 
ment, the rights of property, the rights of person, and 
the rights of opinion, are to be virtually determined by 
the mere preponderance of numbers ; if no questions are 
to be asked of the voters who hold this responsible 
power, except " Are you of age and a citizen of the 
country ? " if the vote of the most intelligent and vir- 
tuous man in the land may be nullified by the vote of 
one who has just enough of the element of humanity 
to keep him from going on four legs, — and this is, in 
plain terms, what the theory of universal suffrage amounts 
to, — ^I can only say that it will require a great deal of 
wisdom on somebody's part so to work the theory that 
it shall result in a stable, permanent and elevated gov- 
ernment. 

Regarding it as a theory, and then considering what 
is the actual condition in point of intelligence and char- 
acter of the mass of mankind, it is not so very strange, 
after all, that even the reformers of older nations are 
somewhat slow to recognize this as the basis of govern- 
ment. But we are substantially committed to the theory, 
and it is not easy to see how in a republic it could be 



22 



otherwise. Property qualifications, excepting such as 
are merely nominal, would always be objectionable and 
odious. Intelligence is not a commodity that can be 
readily weighed — a man that cannot read, may be wiser 
than one who reads to no purpose, — and it would be a 
very delicate business for a public committee, even of 
Congressmen, to sit in judgment upon the degree of 
morality requisite to secure the right of suffrage. Our 
business, then, is to make the best we can of this theory 
and educate the community up to the serious responsi- 
bility which devolves upon them. It seems to be self- 
evident that, as a matter of social protection, we have a 
right to demand that every child in the commonwealth 
should receive the elements of a sound education. A 
republic, without schools and churches, is a practical 
impossibility. If it were possible it would be a nuisance. 
Sunday theatres, and beer saloons, and public dances, 
and working-mens' associations and caucusses, are a poor 
substitute for houses of worship and temples of learning. 
And here let me observe, that in such a government 
as ours, it is incumbent upon all intelligent and good 
men, whatever their vocations, to take an interest in 
political affairs. They should insist that every party 
nominate its best members for important offices, and 
then it would matter comparatively little which party 
succeeded. Good men in office are more essential than 
sound platforms, for bad men will knock a hole through 



23 



the soundest platform. Instead of the motto, " Princi- 
ples, not Men," let us have, " Principles and Men. If 
every State in our Union were represented in Washing- 
ton by her most cultivated, virtuous, high-toned citizens, 
v^ould there be any cause for fear, whatever party had 
the ascendancy ? It is undoubtedly incumbent upon 
us to respect our rulers, but they ought not to make the 
task too difficult. For it is a difficult task, when those 
whose business it is to make laws habitually break the 
laws. If they settle their disputes with bludgeons, it 
cannot astonish us that their constituents sometimes 
swing the slung-shot. If they stimulate themselves de- 
cently for debate, with hot potations, it is very natural 
that some of the dear people who elected them should 
occasionally be overtaken with what the law terms inde- 
cent intoxication. If they are open to pecuniary con- 
siderations, it is not strange that a hungry man should • 
once in a while appropriate to himself a few loaves and 
fishes without a consideration. If they indulge in a vul- 
gar vocabulary and invent slang terms, they must not 
be surprised if a Rhode Island Secretary of State pub- 
lishes a new edition of his Dictionary of Americanisms, 
with incidental quotations from their debates. In our 
plain republic, we dispense with stars and garters, horse- 
hair wigs and gowns, and all the regalia of royalty. 
This hardly seems to warrant our venerable legislators, 
while in solemn session, in dispensing with the garments 



24 



which are usually worn by our citizens in their daily 
business. In some of these respects, there may be a 
little need of reform ; and it would be well if one of the 
conditions of election to high office were, that an indi- 
vidual, while in office, should conduct himself as a gen- 
tleman. 

The only effectual mode of rectifying public abuses 
amongst us, by elevating public opinion. For public 
opinion, in our land, is king or tyrant, as the case may 
be. There is a power surrounding us like an atmos- 
phere, from whose pressure we never escape, and which 
is inhaled with every breath It is not the law written 
on parchment ; it is so superior to that as to render the 
statute very difficult to be executed when it runs ahead 
of public opinion, and a^dead letter, when it falls behind. 
Neither is it the written creed, which we subscribe with 
our hand. It sits in judgment upon the formula of faith, 
as well as upon the civil law, and sometimes destroys its 
vitalitj^, without disturbing the form — consumes the 
meat and leaves the shell unbroken. The great purpose 
of all our editors, lecturers and preachers is to conciliate 
or modify this public opinion. Some are content merely 
to reproduce what is understood to be the popular senti- 
ment of those whom they address, and such men are 
called by their friends, very wise, judicious, and safe ; 
they win great applause, if they can make the common- 
places of opinion seem profound, attractive, beautiful. 



25 



They are well paid, secure the best oflfices, and when 
they die, have a splendid funeral and are forgotten. 
Others feel constrained to say what they know to be 
true and needful, without much regard to the prevailing 
standard of opinion ; and when they die, there is no 
marble monument erected over their dust, but their 
words live, long after all the grave-stones have crumbled. 
The popular opinion of the world in any given period 
was the unpopular opinion of a few men, born prema- 
turely some centuries before. How important, then, that 
we should have in our councils, real statesmen, real men, 
competent and willing, at whatever cost to themselves, to 
shape aright the popular sentiment of the nation ; men 
who can hold a rabble in awe, whether in the street or on 
the floor of Congress ; who can reprove and rebuke fanat- 
ics and fire-eaters, with the calm and overwhelming au- 
thority of a Washington, whose words were sometimes like 
a two-edged sword, piercing the very joints and marrow. 
Popular opinion is always prone to extremes, and re- 
gards with great contempt such as are disposed to take 
the middle path ; towards which, after awhile, the ex- 
tremes themselves will inevitably converge. Now, I 
have not a word to say in behalf of that class of persons 
who evade all responsibility by never taking a positive 
position, and whenever they are consulted, only shake 
their owlish heads solemnly, and say with profound 
gravity : " There is much to be considered on both 
4 



26 



sides." I do affirm, however, that in any time of great 
excitement, when the community are sundered by any 
serious issue, it requires ten-fold more of moral courage, 
for one to stand in the breach, calmly proposing modes 
of reconciliation, mutual conference, reasonable compro- 
mise, while the atmosphere is crackling with the thunder- 
bolts of wrath, than it does to plunge into the very 
hottest of the fray, and shriek with the loudest. The 
real hero is not the man who despises or defies public 
opinion, but who seeks to guide it into its right channel, 
let the temporary injury to his own interests or fame be 
what it may. One of the best things which the moralist 
Seneca ever said was this : " No one seems to me to put 
a higher estimate upon virtue, no one to be more devoted 
to her cause, than he who is -willing to lose the reputa- 
tion of being a good man, rather than violate his con- 
science." And if ever there was a period when such 
men were needed, it is the present. For some of the 
most serious dangers which now threaten us, come from 
tendencies to excess in the right direction ; fron; counter- 
feits which need but one stroke of the pen to make 
genuine. The next thing we shall have to fear will be 
the reaction that must inevitably follow ; the recoil of 
the gun, after the explosion. Then your moral courage 
must be shown by resisting the reaction, and claiming 
that sound progress shall not be stayed, because it has 
been pushed to excess. 



27 



The great use of conservative men is to stay the sud- 
den, premature precipitation of important social changes. 
For a reform, good in itself, may work only evil, by 
being wrought out of its time. And we need not fear 
that a reformative public opinion, when the time has 
come for its development, will find no opportunity to 
utter itself There wa^ no free press in France, when 
the corruption of the Court and the Church, stirred those 
first faint murmurs, which afterwards broke out in the 
awful howl of the Revolution ; but, notwithstanding this, 
the people found or invented modes to express their in- 
dignation. The painted crockery on the dinner table, 
the pictures on their snuff-boxes, the paper that lined the 
walls of their houses, the carvings on the ceiling, the 
cards with which they played their loo and cribbage, 
were all made symbolical of the follies and outrages of 
the ruling powers. If hidden fire burns, smoke wiU 
find its way through some crevice ; the earth will crack 
somewhere, when the elements are seething in the depths. 

The virtues in which, as a nation, we are most want- 
ing, Siie patience and faith. The republic is yet young, 
but during our brief existence we have seen such won- 
ders wrought, we have grown so huge, we have accumu* 
lated capital so fast, we have triumphed over so many 
obstacles, that, with the brave enterprise of youth, we 
have acquired not a little of its conceit. We are some- 
times thought to over glorify ourselves somewhat, on 



28 



occasions like the present. The American Eagle has 
been called upon to perform feats far beyond the capac- 
ity of the most patriotic bird. 

I think that our present danger lies in the direction 
of despondency. I fear there is a growing class amongst 
us who begin to despair of this republic. Their appre- 
hensions do not assume any definite form ; if this Union 
is to be dissolved, they cannot say where the line of 
separation will run, or how the division is to be brought 
about ; if we must fiall back into monarchy or a military 
despotism, it is not possible to see how the first king 
that sits upon our throne is to be designated, except by 
a popular vote, and there is at present no very promi- 
nent warrior in the nation of a character to alarm us. 
But they say, so long as this terrible question of Slavery 
continues to agitate us, proclaimed to be a sin against 
God in one section, and an essential institution of the 
Gospel in another ; so long as we have so much corrup- 
tion in high places and so much ignorance and irreligion 
in low places ; so long as the preponderance of power 
in our larger cities lies with those who are utterly in- 
competent to exercise it aright, we are in an unsafe and 
precarious condition. That there are great dangers 
growing out of all this we must admit, and they ought 
to excite every good citizen, and especially every Chris- 
tian, to put forth renewed exertions for the elevation 
and sanctification of the people. Let the pulpit speak 



29 



more directly to the hearts of men, and bring the blessed^ 
renewing truths of religion closer home to the conscience ; 
let those who control the periodical press, that mighty 
engine of influence, cease to pander to a corrupt and 
vulgar taste ; let them be more scrupulous in their treat- 
ment of those who are appointed to rule over us, while 
they never fail to rebuke sin and fraud, whoever may be 
the transgressors; let our glorious system of public schools 
be plied with more efficiency ; let parents train their 
children with greater care, and set them a better exam- 
ple ; let there be a more living sympathy between the 
rich and the poor, and we will still outride the storm, 
and find safe anchorage at last. I believe that our 
foundations yet stand firm, and that God means we shall 
accomplish our destiny. The work that our fathers in- 
augurated with such a solemn sacrifice of blood, must 
not, and shall not fail. 

One great fact distinguishes our condition. No man 
among us feels the presence of government unless he 
offends against the law as a criminal. So long as we 
behave ourselves, we are as independent of our rulers as 
they are of us. They cannot touch our honest gains. 
They cannot prescribe our personal movements. They 
cannot control our opinions. They cannot hinder the 
public utterance of these opinions. We have no press- 
gang, no conscription, no levying upon our goods by 
absolute authority. The rights of property are perfectly 



30 



secure, and if our Congress did not meet again for ten 
years to come, we should probably be as well off as we 
are to day — perhaps better. 

We have our periodical political uproars, but nobody 
is harmed if we keep out of harm's way. The nation is 
vastly richer now than it ever was before. We have 
comparatively little poverty but such as is imported. 
We have multitudes of hospitals, asylums, retreats, re- 
form schools, and a Church of some sort for every six 
hundred people in the United States. Our prisons are 
wonderfully improved. Missionaries are promptly sent 
to our destitute regions. There is not a gigantic moral 
evil amongst us but there is also a gigantic effort to 
control and exterminate it. Why should we despair ? 
Do the signs of the times indicate that God has de- 
serted us ? 

Fellow citizens of Rhode Island: two hundred and 
twenty-four years ago, there was a declaration of inde- 
pendence made upon your soil, in- which the rights of 
the soul as well as of the body, the freedom of the will 
as well as of the hand, were vindicated from the narrow- 
ness and tyranny of the past We keep no anniversary 
in commemoration of that event, one of the grandest in 
all history. Aird we had almost lost sight of the burial- 
place of the great man who anticipated the charter of 
modern liberty. Monuments have been erected in mem- 
ory of awful butcheries, and there are noble statues 



31 



abroad in honor of men who never knew what it was to 
be noble or honorable. But there is not a slab of mar- 
ble in the State with the name of Roger Williams in- 
scribed upon it, — not even a stone to mark his grave. 
This reproach you now intend to take away. You are 
pledged to build a monument to that man's memory ; 
and not only so, but in testimony of the fact that after a 
fair trial of two centuries, you continue to stand by his 
principles. Let it be worthy of the man, worthy of the 
doctrine he upheld, worthy of the State. There is not a 
commonwealth on the face of the earth, in whose his- 
tory — I was about to say — there is less to be ashamed 
of; I will rather say, more to be proud of — than there 
is in the records of Rhode Island and these Providence 
Plantations. No Indian tribe ever cursed you ; no man 
ever suffered here for conscience sake. You have a 
narrow territory — not over fertile, but you have grown 
very rich. God has prospered you abundantly. Now 
do something that will make your children proud. 
Build a column that will stand when the State has 
grown old ; a work of art that will elevate the taste and 
quicken the patriotism of our citizens to the latest gener- 
ation. For, remember, the principles which that column 
is intended to commemorate, are as eternal as God, and 
as unchangeable as truth. 

Fellow citizens : the symbol of our State is an anchor, 
and this means " sure and steadfast." Our watchword 



32 



is " Hope." We are bound never to despair of the Re- 
public. The labor of the past has not been lost : the 
labor of to-day is not in vain. No holy word, no right- 
eous act can ever die. Be hopeful. We are moving 
on towards high noon ; — hardly out of the twilight yet, 
it may be, — but, thank God, it is the twilight of the 
morning, not of the evening. And the hour hand on the 
great dial-plate of time never goes back. Slowly and 
silently, except, when it strikes, at long intervals, the 
progressive epochs of the world, it advances towards the 
meridian. 






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